BCR Questions

Thursday, October 23, 2014

"...A lot more electricity being needed."

British Columbians are fortunate to be guided by wise and experienced leaders, people able to analyze events and foresee the future in ways that more practised experts cannot. One of my favourites is Bill Bennett, a man particularly qualified to make decisions on how the public ought to spend tens of billions of dollars.

Bennett gained expertise and honed business acumen as an entrepreneur involved in fishing camps and a goose-hunting lodge on Hudson Bay. Despite potential conflicts, he maintained a financial connection to wilderness tourism even after beginning a career in politics. Reporter Larry Pynn provided detail in Bill Bennett is still trying to put his past behind him, a 2013 article in the Vancouver Sun.

With keen perception of a man certain of the road he follows, Bennett recognizes uses that might overwhelm present generating capacity if a ten or fifteen billion dollar commitment to Site C is not made.

"There are new and increasing uses for electricity: electric cars, the things that we tape our favourite television shows with, our phones, our iPads, our laptops, etc.; a lot more electricity being needed."

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Admittedly, I missed the impact of those items. I assumed that fewer than 1,000 electrical vehicles (0.029% of registrations) placed little burden on BC Hydro because they are typically recharged at night. As well, I was lulled into a sense of comfort by Forbes Magazine reporting that I can power all my electronic devices and use less electricity simply by changing one 60 watt incandescent bulb to a compact fluorescent. I had also assumed that taping television programs was done only by the few people still playing 8-tracks as they roll on down the highway. Additionally, my information had suggested that modern flat screen TVs use about 75% less power than the old cathode ray tube sets that are disappearing.

Seriously, I wonder if we could convince Bill Bennett's colleagues that he has been speaking nonsense, would they send plans for Site C back to the archives?

Interesting that Bennett is quoted as saying other cabinet ministers drove lifting the tax burden on the wilderness tourism industry when he was minister of community and rural development. Seems the job was done either instead of or despite his efforts, whatever they were. Maybe they were all suffering from battered-wife syndrome inside cabinet, which Mr. Bennett says existed at the time courtesy of Gordon Campbell.

In any case, with Mr. Bennett’s track record for investments and the possibility of lingering PTSD from the Gordon Campbell trauma, it might be prudent to re-institute the Public Utilities Commission as it relates to the Site-C project.

As droughts continue around the world, people will be more willing to pay for food and a lot more, than they would pay for electricity from some water dam in B.C. We can all survive the dark, for years. Not eating, well you're good for about 30 days, if you're fat and have something to drink.

Site C is most likely wanted not as a power source, but as a water source, for fracking. We can't afford site C or anything else. The last I read, they were still mining for $17M a yr in the pockets of children who were living at 50% below the poverty line and Don McRae and Christy Clark haven't said anything different.

Now that we have Christy saying the LNG companies get a lower tax rate, just how much will B.C. be making? Because from my bad math, I have concluded it won't be much. Then if one oil tanker cracks up on the coast all of the "tax profit" will have to be spent cleaning it up.

Ya, the lieberals are real lieberal with my money, my environment, and my province. I'd sure like to have a look at the bank balance of all these people involved in these activities. Oh, right, they do it for free because they are serving the people of B.C.

I do say, if the politicians stood up and said they were doing it because they personally were going to make a fortune, I'd understand. Doing all of what Clark and her cabal are doing, because its "good for the economy", oh, my god send those people to a good school so they can study economics, social development, history, geography, water resources, etc.

Perhaps that is the problem, politicians without decent educations. We know why corporations and executives do what they do. Its to make money, keep their shareholders happy, and keep their own jobs, and get reallllly big bonuses. That I understand.

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